Former Foreign Secretary Robin Cook explains why the European elections on June 10 are important and we why should vote.

VOTERS in Wales go to the polls in all of Wales' 22 Unitary Authorities this month. Quite rightly, this presents an opportunity for people to focus on local issues such as schools, community regeneration and anti-social behaviour.

But at the same time, Welsh voters have the chance to take part in one of the largest democratic elections ever, the elections to the new European Parliament. For the first time, election to the Parliament will be being held in all 25 countries in the newly-enlarged European Union.

Although it can be difficult to get the electorate - and certainly the media - to focus on the range of everyday issues for which the European Parliament has responsibility, these elections do represent a real opportunity to put the case for a wholehearted engagement with the European Union, which we will need to make in the run-up to the referendum on the constitutional treaty.

The right in British politics is now almost exclusively Eurosceptic. It is difficult to see how a future Conservative leader could be anything other than broadly Eurosceptic, more concerned with chasing votes which might otherwise go to the UK Independence Party than in actively promoting Britain's interests through positive engagement in the EU. A future referendum on the European Constitution will re-open the old wounds in the Tory party. The blood-letting will likely resume and while it will be fun to watch, those who care about Britain in Europe must not be distracted from making the positive case for Europe.

The case for Europe is there to be made and to be won. Even before enlargement, more than 150,000 jobs in Wales depended on our exports to countries in the European Union. This is trade worth over #4bn a year to the Welsh economy. Seven out of eight of Wales' leading trade partners are in the EU and 46% of the tourists that visit Wales every year are fellow citizens of Europe. These figures alone should make even the most reluctant pro-European concede that there is little alternative to our membership of the EU.

If the first fundamental of winning an election is a strong economy then the starting point for the pro-European case is to make the economic argument. The fact that mainstream opinion within the trade union movement and within the business community now accepts the basic logic of being part of Europe speaks volumes.

But what difference, aside from opening up opportunities for trade, does Europe make to Wales? Is it actually making a difference? The answer is an unqualified yes.

Objective One status for West Wales, the Valleys and much of North Wales is helping to deliver Labour's agenda of full employment and prosperity, with over 50,000 jobs created or safeguarded through European funding. But the funding wasn't secured by accident. It was needed because of the economic legacy of 18 years of Tory Government but it was delivered because a Labour Government had taken the decision that it was in our national interest to be at the heart of Europe and because Labour representatives at all levels - in local Government, in central Government and in the European Parliament - worked together to make it happen.

The danger of a single market without a common set of rules and minimum standards of behaviour is that competitiveness will be based on longer hours and fewer rights and protections. This is what is imagined by many advocates of a Europe of loosely associated and freely trading nations. Labour and our allies in the Party of European Socialists, which I was privileged to chair, support a Europe where companies can trade freely, but we do not support a Europe that is a free for all on the rights of workers and consumers. This is how Europe, when it is made to work for people, can deliver both fairness and enterprise in a single market of 450 million people that spans 25 countries.

On tackling organised crime, and especially drug and people trafficking, Europe is also in the frontline in protecting communities in Wales. The problem of drugs in the Valleys are well documented and while local solutions in respect of policing and rehabilitation are vital there is a role for Europe to play also. The effects of drugs and organised crime are local, but they are international and cross border in their origins. Cross-border co-operation is an essential ingredient of mounting an effective response.

On each of these issues - jobs, fairness and crime - Europe has an important role to play. And as at all levels of politics, the balance between the right and the left will make a profound difference. That is why the elections on June 10 are important and it is why how people vote will make a difference.